1. Jarrett Allen responds with strong performance
After center Enes Kanter went off for 22 points and 20 rebounds for the New York Knicks in their preseason win over the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday, coach Kenny Atkinson challenged his young big man that he had to be better.
King James Gospel
Allen was better. He lost the individual rebounding battle to Andre Drummond — last season’s NBA leader in rebounding — by a 10-9 margin and, yes, Drummond had seven offensive boards.
But Allen was also largely responsible for Drummond’s 6-for-21 shooting night, blocking one of his shots and getting in his head for many others.
Allen finished with 17 points and four blocks and was a plus-12 on the night in 33 minutes, going 7-for-12 from the floor and grabbing four of his rebounds on the offensive end.
Allen had two of his blocks on one trip at the defensive end, stepping up to stop driving Luke Kennard and recovering to stuff Drummond’s attempt at a putback.
The second-year center from Texas was active all night, setting picks, working to box Drummond out — much more aggressively than he worked against Kanter last week — and protecting the rim.
psssst....@_bigjayy_ had more blocks than just that one against Blake.
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) October 9, 2018
(Obviously we still included that here, because we're not trying to deprive you or anything.) https://t.co/mYs6YZ3hob
That was the type of performance the Nets were hoping to see from Allen, for the most part anyway. He was still tentative with shots further away from the basket than a foot and nearly committed a terrible turnover in overtime before being bailed out by Atkinson calling a timeout.
In any event, the kid had a great bounce-back game after a rough time in the preseason opener.